Unfounded vaccine myths harm measles herd immunity

Measles is exploding because parents are afraid to have their children vaccinated. That’s the message emerging from the US and Germany this week. Anti-vaccination scaremongering is believed to be driving the outbreaks.

By Monday, 486 cases had been reported so far this year to the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, which monitors the spread of infectious disease in Germany – up from 446 cases for the whole of 2014. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, had reported 121 cases in the same time frame.

In both countries, health professionals are blaming parents who reject the triple MMR vaccine for their children, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

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According to Mobeen Rathore, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on infectious diseases, the upsurge is a sign that myths about vaccines need to be dispelled globally, including any link with autism. “We need to increase rates by educating people and having stronger laws that require childhood immunisations, and removing loopholes allowing parents to seek exemptions,” says Rathore.

In Germany, 344 of the cases have been in Berlin. “The main causes are low immunisation rates in toddlers, adolescents and younger adults, which results in missing ‘herd immunity’ for children too young to be vaccinated,” says Dorothea Matysiak-Klose of the Robert Koch Institute.

This article will appear in print under the headline “Myths make measles soar”